Win Oo, a reporter with the local outlet NHP News, has been held in pretrial detention under undisclosed charges since November 2022.
Win Oo was detained on November 19, 2022, after attending a military junta press conference held by Deputy Minister of Information General Zaw Min Tun in the capital of Naypyidaw, according to news reports and a database compiled by the Detained Journalists Information Myanmar (DJIM) private Facebook group, which CPJ reviewed.
The journalist’s arrest came in the wake of the military’s February 1, 2021, democracy-suspending coup and subsequent protests. Since then, the military junta has engaged in an ongoing crackdown on Myanmar’s independent media, detaining and sentencing dozens of journalists.
The reports said Win Oo suggested during a question-and-answer session that the military regime should release imprisoned coup-ousted former national leader Aung San Suu Kyi and jailed journalists.
Zaw Ye Htet, editor-in-chief of the local Daw Pyaw online news publication, was also detained after the press conference.
Win Oo was still in detention in late October 2023, according to a database compiled by the local rights group Assistance Association of Political Prisoners and DJIM’s data, which CPJ reviewed late in the year. CPJ was unable to determine where he was being detained.
The Ministry of Information did not reply to CPJ’s October 2023 emailed request for comment on Win Oo’s legal status, whereabouts, and health.